


When The Sky's Falling

by Havanar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Asthma, Episode: s08e05 The Grudge, Fade to Black, Hurt, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Intimacy, M/M, Missing Scene, Neck Kissing, Post-Battle, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22203652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havanar/pseuds/Havanar
Summary: Shiro learns what it's like to see the one he loves get hurt.Set after the events of S8E5 The Grudge.  AKA the hurt comfort scene WE DESERVED.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 239





	When The Sky's Falling

**Author's Note:**

> For my Sheith secret santa, plusVICE. I went heavy with the hurt/comfort, I hope that's okay! Hurt/comfort is usually my jam but I spent ages going backwards and forwards about fic ideas for this.  
> (Also sorry for being so late!!!)

Shiro ran for Keith as soon as Veronica took the shot. He didn’t even register Zethird falling, Axca telling him to hold back, or that Keith might still be in danger. Keith’s name kept circling in his mind along with _Keep him safe, get him a helmet. Find his armour so that he’s protected._

It hadn’t surprised him when Keith had saved Zethird. It hadn't surprised him when Keith had rejected any medical aid either. He'd waved Coran away with a casual _check the others first._

Which finds them alone, in their quarters on the Atlas, Keith leaning against the sink in the bathroom.  
  
‘Show me’ Shiro says as his fingers trace the high collar of the paladin under suit.  
  
‘I’m fine Shiro.’ Is Keith’s response, his voice a little raspy, and Shiro knows that he means it. That Keith always thinks he’s fine unless he’s bleeding profusely. He’d tried to continue classes with a concussion in his third year at The Garrison. Knocked his head in the simulator, a landing gone wrong, insisting he was fine. Until he had vomited on Iverson’s shoes during a lecture. 

‘Then show me.’ He repeats, making his voice soft. He’s always compared Keith to a stray cat in his head. One who takes a while to warm up to someone new. Fiercely independent but secretly desperate for attention, even if it meant stealing a brand new, military issued, car. And everyone knows that cats hide when they're sick.

Keith lets out a little huff as his own hands come up to meet Shiro’s. Shiro lets him pull the collar down of his under suit himself so that Shiro can inspect his neck properly. There are no obvious signs of bruising, and Keith does bruise easily, but Shiro reaches for his neck anyway. He touches gently, just in case. Keith doesn’t flinch back, but Shiro hears the sharp intake of breath all the same, a slight high pitched whistling at the end. 

‘Sure?’ Shiro asks, keeping his hands so close to Keith’s neck that he feels it when Keith nods.  
  
‘'m Fine.’ He replies, meeting Shiro’s gaze. ‘But I’ll spend an hour in the pod tomorrow if it makes you feel better.’  
  
‘Thank you.’ Shiro murmurs, leaning into Keith’s neck to trace it with his lips. He feels the sharp inhale of breath from Keith more than he hears it.  
  
‘I just want you to feel better, baby.’ He mumbles as he plants a kiss there.  
  
‘I do when you’re here.’ Keith replies, leaning his head on Shiro's, letting some of his weight be taken.  
  
‘Holding back and not running for you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.’ Shiro admits into the safety of Keith’s collarbone.  
  
Keith doesn’t respond in the time it takes Shiro to work the zip at the back of his suit down. He doesn’t respond in the time it takes Shiro to unroll the top half either. Shiro has just begun to trace a line of kisses from his collarbone towards his heart when he hears it.

The breath Keith takes in before he speaks is slightly laboured before he speaks.  
‘Now you know how I feel.’ The words hit him like the jolt of a ship leaving Earth’s atmosphere. ‘Every time.’ Keith adds as Shiro looks up, steel grey meeting blue.  
  
‘I’m sorry.’ He mouths, the words not quite reaching his vocal chords.  
  
‘I know.’ Keith responds, just as Shiro surges towards him. Shiro ignores the wheeze as Keith meets his kiss.

* * *

Shiro knows that something’s really wrong later that night, when Keith’s head finally slumps into a more comfortable position on his shoulder. It’s at this point in the night that Keith’s breathing usually evens out, softens into something calmer. But not tonight. Tonight the whistling sound, the one he knows is a wheeze becomes even more evident. 

Countless possibilities find their way through Shiro’s head as Keith sleeps beside him. _A damaged windpipe? Exposure to a foreign planets atmosphere without his helmet? Undiagnosed asthma? An infection? Lung failure?_ He lifts his hand, the Altean one, to rest atop Keith’s head, weaving his fingers into Keith’s hair and listening to his breathing.

* * *

Shiro wakes to coughing later in the night. The clock next to his bed projects 3:47 onto the floor. He feels the absence of Keith’s body, not tangled in his where it should be, like he did his arm after the arena. He pulls himself up, suddenly wide awake and takes in Keith, coughing uncontrollably, the wheeze still echoing every noise he makes. Shiro pulls himself up, arms reaching out for Keith, patting his back through it. Keith catches his eye during a what looks like a particularly painful cough, both hands covering his mouth, body lurching with each cough.  
  
‘Medbay.’ Shiro says, pushing the sheets away and guiding Keith up. The mantra from earlier that day finding its way back into his head. _Keep him safe, get him a helmet. Find his armour so that he’s protected._

He pages Coran on the way, who arrives at the medbay before they do. He has a mask ready, hooked up to a machine next to a bed. They get Keith onto the bed and Shiro eases the mask over his mouth and nose, he watches Keith take a deep breath before he pulls the strap over his head, making sure it won’t catch on his hair.

* * *

Over the next hour the coughing subsides and Keith’s eyes start to droop.  
‘It’s okay, baby, you can sleep.’ Shiro mummers, hand tracing the parts of his jaw that aren’t covered by the mask. He watches Keith’s eyes flutter, and then close. Making sure that his breathing remains deep and even.   
  
‘Exposure to another planet’s atmosphere shocked his system, that was all.’ Coran reassures him. ‘One night with some oxygen support and he should be fine.’  
  
‘Thanks Coran.’ Is all he can bring himself to say, eyes fixated on Keith.  
  
‘Message if you need me.’ Coran says as he exits. Shiro nods but he doesn’t register if Coran sees.  
  
He lets his fingers trace Keith’s eyebrows this time, keeping his touch feather light so as not to wake him. Then he moves on to his eyelashes, he’d never really noticed how long they are.  
  
‘Next time,’ he says softly, pushing his chair back so he can rest his head on Keith’s thigh, fingers tracing small circles on his hip. ‘We go straight to the medbay when I say so.’ He thinks he catches Keith’s eyebrows furrow, but he isn’t sure. ‘And you not being awake doesn’t get you out of this deal.’ He adds.  
He doesn’t miss the small grin appear on Keith’s face underneath the mask.


End file.
